Taking orders :)

[2wo]

Me too...John

 

[tyj]

Do you have a ball park price at this stage id like start to budget for the dac

 

[Doc B]

This is very ball park and I won't accept any complaints if it turns out to be different, but the price will probably be in the $1000-$1200 range. The DAC boards are very expensive to have manufactured.

 

[denti alligator]

Do you expect it to be available to ship by the end of the summer?

 

[Doc B]

I would hope so.

 

[denti alligator]

Cool. My birthday is at the end of August. And your DAC is what I hope to get

 

[Superdad]

John was not exaggerating about the improvement in his software filter. The dynamics are really something else with outstanding resolution and great tonal balance.

I can also say that the new digital filter seems to have cleaned up the sound from a temporal standpoint. Transients are cleaner and more dynamic and the decay of notes seems to follow the recording more closely, revealing more of the harmonic structure of instruments and really locking in the image.

Hi Gang:

In case you want to see the room where the tuning of the filter for the BH was done, here are a couple of pics.  My room is entirely custom (a lot of crazy things were done in its construction that you can't see from the pics) and the speakers are rather special as well (no crossover on the custom dual-voicecoil woofer; first order roll-in for the dome midrange; tweeter comes in about 7K).  Key to the tuning session were the very revealing tracks (of real instruments in real spaces with tremendous dynamics and lots of challenging sounds which resound to small temporal variations), and out methodically bracing the parameters.
Jonh is planning another vista soon for tests on another in-process project.  I'm a 3-hour drive each way for him, but we always has a blast and finds our sessions very useful.  My Hovland RADIA amp is very sideband, and he can hear things on them that don't show up through his headphone amp.
Feel free to ask any questions.
Best,
Alex Crespi
UpTone Audio LLC

 

[mcandmar]

The painted wall is a nice optical illusion, i only noticed the curve looking at the carpet line

 

[hopeful]

Just curious how things are progressing?  Having read John's articles, I'm really excited for this kit whenever you all are ready to take orders!

 

[Paul Joppa]

Prototype listening test today (I was there). There is a subtle difference between battery-only and battery-on-charge. One of those things that you can't listen for but are aware of if you distract your conscious mind. The DAC will be in use for the head-fi meet Saturday.

 

[hopeful]

Thanks for the update PJ.  I'll look forward to reading any comments or impressions that are posted in the wake of the meet.  Wish I could be there to meet you all and hear the latest revision in person.  Maybe someday!

Is the subtle difference you perceived as between battery-only and charging within the scope of what you all had expected, or is this something that may result in further tweaks to the psu?

 

[fullheadofnothing]

The power supply does not need to be tweaked. At the flick of a switch you can set the DAC to be powered only by the battery. Yesterday's test was to find out if it makes an audible difference. The previous version of the charging circuit did not allow for charging while listening. That, combined with the smaller battery used in the previous prototype, led to about 6 hours of listening time. That would be fine for most listening sessions, but for long auditions we needed to have both longer battery life, and the ability to run it off the wall, if needed. With the larger battery, the DAC will run for almost a full day (at least 23 hours (no one could remember exactly when we turned it on...)) on the battery alone, or indefinitely, at slightly lower fidelity, with the charge and run setting. FWIW, I could not really hear a difference, but I am pretty ape-eared. Dan and the Pauls could definitely hear it.

 

[hopeful]

Awesome!  Thanks for the further info.  23 hours on battery is amazing, and the option to listen while charging is highly valuable - especially if the audible impact is so subtle.  Can't wait until an official order date is announced 

 

[Paul Birkeland]

Is the subtle difference you perceived as between battery-only and charging within the scope of what you all had expected, or is this something that may result in further tweaks to the psu?

The battery supply was initially an experiment against the original bread-board DAC power supply.  Generally speaking, I would estimate that this bread-board supply would add about $400 to the price of the DAC, and it didn't sound as good as the battery.

 

[Doc B]

The difference is subtle. Basically there is some HF stuff that is being removed by running off battery only. On battery only the treble is a bit more relaxed sounding, the presentation a tiny bit less bright. For me it helped to define the image a little bit better. It would probably be hard to discern much of this difference without the ability to switch the charger in and out on the fly.

We are closing in on starting a production run, just a few more details to work out.

 

[denti alligator]

We are closing in on starting a production run, just a few more details to work out.

O boyoboy!

So excited. Gotta sell a bunch of CDs and DVDs on ebay to pay for this. Good timing, since the semester is about to end.

 

[PassionForSound]

We are closing in on starting a production run, just a few more details to work out.

O boyoboy!

So excited. Gotta sell a bunch of CDs and DVDs on ebay to pay for this. Good timing, since the semester is about to end.

That'll be a lot of CDs & DVDs or some very special CDs / DVDs!! 

 

[denti alligator]

We are closing in on starting a production run, just a few more details to work out.

O boyoboy!

So excited. Gotta sell a bunch of CDs and DVDs on ebay to pay for this. Good timing, since the semester is about to end.

That'll be a lot of CDs & DVDs or some very special CDs / DVDs!! 

Several hundred, not all that special, though some are...

 

[catfishstevens]

We are closing in on starting a production run, just a few more details to work out.

Can't wait!!

 

[Doc B]

See the box with the 7 segment readout and the black chassis panel in the upper right corner? That's the functional prototype running one of our setups at the Head Fi meet we hosted yesterday. The display is telling you that it's playing a 96kHz file.

<a href="https://www.head-fi.org/t/716282/lightbox/post/10493794/id/1093525"><img src="https://www.head-fi.org/image/id/5971987/width/400/flags/LL"></a>

Photo credit - Seamaster